She may have come in third but Jenah Doucette was a winner in our hearts. The second runner up on cycle 9 of America’s Next Top Model was sent home just before the finale and fans were outraged. Many BuddyTV readers hoped for a Jenah/Heather final two but that day never came. From the beginning, Jenah didn’t have the most experience but took the best pictures. However, once she got to China, homesickness got the best of her and she started to feel like she need to change in order to stay in the competition. She was targeted by the judges for having, what they called, an attitude but Jenah insists she’s just being herself and doesn’t need to conform to what anyone wants her to be. Today, she spoke to BuddyTV about life after Top Model and what’s in store for her.
Below, you will find the complete transcript and mp3 of the interview.
Hey everyone, this is Gina from BuddyTV, and today I’m talking to Jenah, the second runner-up of cycle nine of America’s Next Top Model.
First of all, I actually just heard this, so I’d like to make a general announcement because I want this to be public. I just found out that I have a MySpace impostor, so look out.
That’s how you know you’re popular, when someone’s trying to impersonate you on MySpace.
Yeah, I was really annoyed by it.
I’m wondering what you have to say to your fans. There were a ton of BuddyTV readers who really wanted to see a Jenah/Heather final two.
For my fans, they really don’t need to worry about me. I think that in retrospect it could possibly be for the best. I can spread my wings a little bit further, I don’t have to be back in the show, I can go do whatever. I think it’s better maybe, because what if I change my mind and if I didn’t want to do Cover Girl? I think that I can definitely make it without winning, and I think that I’ll be totally okay, so don’t worry about me. I’ll be good.
Is your goal to continue modeling and to keep pursuing this in your own way?
Absolutely, absolutely.
I really liked what you said on the finale about how you don’t have to be bubbly and you don’t have to be like everybody else to be a role model. Was it really important to you to stay true to yourself and not try to be what Tyra or anybody else wanted you to be?
Yeah, I think at that point I kind of knew that there was a huge chance that I could get sent home if I didn’t change my attitude, but I realized that there would be really no way to change my attitude without compromising myself in a way. I don’t want to say selling out, but that’s the only thing that comes to mind.
It seems like in China that the stress started to get to you. How were you feeling when you were there?
Well, everything felt harder, because it’s not like I had a cell phone or a TracPhone. If I ever left the country to do modeling jobs there’s no way in the world I would just go over there without a phone and not contact my family, you know what I mean? Just considering the circumstances, it’s a TV show, it’s hard work, and I didn’t get to talk to my family as much as I would like to, understandably. That was really hard to deal with, not talking to my family as much as I would have liked to, being so far away, that was hard.
When you watch the show back, and you watch the episodes, do you feel like we the viewers really get to see who you are? Was it an accurate portrayal of who Jenah is?
Well, I think it was a limited portrayal, but it was mostly accurate. Especially the episode they played the day before Thanksgiving, the recap episode, that’s basically how I acted the first couple weeks I quit smoking. I kind of went nuts, and I was just goofing off. but that’s really me. I’m really silly, and I goof off all the time, and I throw things at other people and yell for absolutely no reason, and making ridiculous jokes. I think that was pretty real, I think that was very me, but if you think about it you can’t get to know every aspect of someone’s personality by watching an hour of them every week. So it was accurate, but limited.
You took so many great photos this season, and I’m wondering which one ended up being your favorite.
I had a lot of favorites. I really like the rock climbing one, the rock climbing shoot was definitely my favorite. But my favorite picture, I’m not sure…I think it might be the desert photo, the car on fire, that was a whole lot of fun. It’s really great to look at, because that’s so me, like being a drama queen.
When you had that moment with Nigel at the photo shoot where he took what you said the wrong way, it channeled CariDee’s moment with him at the bullfighting shoot. I’m just wondering how you felt about that whole thing, if Nigel just sort of was taking you the wrong way, or maybe even overreacting to you.
I think that Nigel might have had a problem with me not being serious about swooning over him. No, I’m just kidding. I don’t know, it’s hard to say. I definitely think that was a huge bruise to the ego for him, because he’s obviously a very beautiful man. I kind of took it the wrong way when he sort of came up and was like “I don’t want you guys to be intimidated.” It was like, I’m not intimidated, I don’t want to be intimidated by people, even my bosses. My bosses at the job that I have now, the people I work for, I get along with really well. I know when to be appropriate and when I can goof off with them. When it really means business, I’m very appropriate and I don’t make jokes in the middle of staff meetings. But you know, when we have down time with Nigel he comes over and says something along the lines of “I don’t want you to be intimidated by little old me.” It’s like uh, uh-oh Nigel, we’re scared! I was just kidding, and I don’t know why he took that the wrong way, but it’s a joke.
Are you glad that you did the show, and is it something that if you could go back you would do again?
I don’t know. I was kind of thinking of that question myself, if I would go and do it all over again. I guess I appreciate the exposure that it gave me, but it was a really tough experience for me on a lot of levels. I guess, yeah, I would do it over again. I would do it over again, but I would probably never do another reality TV show ever, as long as I live. Ever.
We’ll try not to worry about you, and we hope that we’re going to see more of you in the future because you’re an amazing model. We’re really glad we got to see you this season.
Thank you so much.
– Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of CW)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
